NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's decision to reinstate the New Orleans Saints coach Tuesday was certainly a welcome one - but it also reeked of "Too little, too late."

Slicing two weeks off of Payton's sentence certainly won't appease the Saints' fan base. So all of those suggestions that Goodell did this the week before Super Bowl 2013 comes to town to curry favor with the locals seem a bit silly.

After having to watch the New Orleans Saints from a distance in 2012, Sean Payton will "get back in the gym" with his team Wednesday in Mobile, Ala.G. Andrew Boyd, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

If Goodell really cared about throwing a set of beads to the city of New Orleans, he would have let Payton back three weeks ago, right after the 2012 season ended. If not much, much sooner.

As former Saints player Scott Fujita cracked on Twitter: "Love seeing how 'smart' everyone says the Payton reinstatement is. I think 'smart' left the building a long time ago."

At least Goodell is finally trending in the right direction.

This is the second time that the commissioner has eventually made the right decision in the bounty saga - the first coming when he appointed former commissioner Paul Tagliabue to clean up his mess with the player suspensions.

According to a league source, Goodell ultimately decided that it was appropriate to let Payton return now with the Senior Bowl taking place this week and the Saints working on other football decisions for the 2013 season.

And according to the source, that process began a couple of weeks ago, and part of the delay was linked to the formal approval of Payton's new contract.

But still, the randomness of Tuesday's announcement was just another reminder of how arbitrary Goodell's decisions have been throughout the bounty saga.

Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt admitted to feeling some of that same frustration Tuesday. The 34-year coaching veteran described himself as being "on the back nine of my career and I can see the clubhouse, and I felt like there was a season taken away from us."

But Vitt sounded almost like he was trying to convince himself to move on when he said, "Listen, I gotta put it behind me. For the good of our team, for the good of our city, we're moving on. We've got to get better players. We've got to coach better."

And to that end, Payton's return comes at the perfect time. Because one thing is extremely evident when you talk to Saints coaches and players and General Manager Mickey Loomis these days: They are absolutely fired up about moving ahead to the 2013 season.

"Mickey and I were just talking about this, when (Payton's suspension began last April), we didn't know what would happen. 'What are we gonna look like 11 months from now? Is this gonna look the same?'" Vitt said. "And now I can tell you, our players have weathered this. Our coaches have weathered this. The band's back together.

"This could've fractured the organization for a long time. But there was none of that. (Owner Tom Benson) has done a great job, Mickey has done a great job of keeping this team together. So here we go, here we go."

That doesn't mean anyone is expecting a smooth or easy offseason.

After finishing 7-9 last seasdon with a defense that allowed more yards than any defense in NFL history, Loomis again insisted that the Saints won't turn a blind eye to their problems.

"Who knows if we would have been better than 7-9 with Sean here?" Loomis said. "We all think it, but we don't know it. So we know we have to look at everything with a critical eye."

Plus, Loomis pointed out that the two second-round draft picks that were taken away from the Saints in 2012 and 2013 will have a more lasting effect on the organization than any of the other penalties - though he said it's no different than simply making the wrong choice with those picks, which happens from time to time, and teams can recover from that.

In other words, Payton's return won't provide total closure. But it will provide one hell of an adrenaline shot.

As defensive line coach Bill Johnson said Tuesday, "Energy. One word: energy."

Payton will "hit the ground running," as Vitt put it. He'll join his coaching staff and scouting staff in Mobile on Wednesday, where they annually get together for their final round of full-staff player evaluations. He was expected to miss Tuesday night's offensive breakdown. But he'll be on hand for Wednesday's defensive breakdown - which is the more glaring priority.

On Thursday, the staff will return to Metairie to start evaluating unrestricted free agents from other teams.

And all options will be on the table once Payton comes back. Though it seems unlikely that he will consider making a coaching change with defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, he could consider personnel changes or scheme changes.

Anyone who knows Payton knows that he won't be passive when he comes back to work.

"He would say, 'We're going back to the gym,'" Vitt said. "It's going to be a smelly gym. The windows are going to be closed, and it's time to start sweating again."

Vitt's description immediately made me think of those dreaded training camp trips to Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. And I could absolutely imagine Payton dragging the team back there or somewhere else for camp this summer for a "re-boot" camp.